Before you speak to me about your religion, first show it to me in how you treat other people. Before you tell me how much you love your God, show me in how much you love all His children.
It is okay not to like someone, but it is never okay to try and degrade, humiliate, or dehumanize them.
No matter what, we always have the power to choose hope over despair, engagement over apathy, kindness over indifference, love over hate.
In life, it is never the big battle, the big moment, the big speech, the big election. That does not change things. What changes things is every day, getting up and rendering small acts of service and love beyond that what’s expected of you or required of you.
Don’t let your inability to do everything undermine your determination to do something.
Leadership is not a position or a title, it is action and example.
First class in life has nothing to do with the clothes you wear, the car you drive or the house you live in. First class is and always will be about the content of your character, the quality of your ideas and the kindness in your heart.
When happy, be kind. When angry, be kind. When hopeful, be kind. When discouraged, be kind. When ever, be kind.
When American citizens pull together, there is little we can’t accomplish.
Real courage is holding on to a still voice in your head that says, ‘I must keep going.’ It’s that voice that says nothing is a failure if it is not final. That voice that says to you, ‘Get out of bed. Keep going. I will not quit.’
The right attitude can transform a barrier into a blessing, an obstacle into an opportunity or a stumbling block into a stepping stone.
Give the respect you want to receive; embody the grace you hope to encounter; and help others with no expectations whatsoever.
Give more than is expected, love more than seems wise, serve more than seems necessary, and help more than is asked.
May we help more than we hurt, may we seek to understand more than be understood and may we love more than we judge.
Go out there and swear to this world your oath, not with your words, but with what you do. Not with your hand over your heart, but with your hand outstretched to a world that desperately needs your hand, your help, your insights, your creativity, your honor, your courage. It needs you.
What more could you ask for in life than to be given an impossible challenge?
Greatness is helping others realize they are great, beautiful and capable. Genius is seeing the wonder and possibility in those others ignore.
We choose forward. We choose inclusion. We choose growing together. We choose American economic might and muscle, standing strong on the bedrock of the American ideal: a strong, empowered and ever-growing middle class.